


Checkmate

by crocodilepatronus



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Chess, Loss of Virginity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 21:31:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas and Jimmy have a nice relaxing game of chess….. which leads to sex on the dining room table of the servant’s hall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flippyspoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Milkman of Human Kindness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/845986) by [flippyspoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon). 



> Flippyspoon’s birthday fic! and yes this is the fic that required ‘self experimentation’ so if that doesn’t excite you I don’t know what will. this is kind of a fanfic to Flippy’s fanfic The Milkman Of Human Kindness…. there will be more author’s notes at the bottom.

Whenever they played chess, Thomas played as black and Jimmy played as white.

Jimmy knew it was just because Thomas wanted to give him whatever advantage he could get but it seemed fitting somehow. Thomas had black hair and he played black, Jimmy was fair haired so he played white.

Jimmy still didn’t like chess very much. He much preferred a faster moving game more suited to betting. But Thomas had been swamped with work lately so Jimmy offered him a late night chess game in hopes that it would help him unwind.

So they found themselves sat across from eachother at the end of the servant’s dining table with the wooden chessboard set up between them, the last ones still awake.

Thomas had a cigarette dangling from between his lips and he didn’t look like he’d just had a week from hell with guests arriving and then leaving at the mansion and a garden party but then again Thomas rarely _looked_ stressed- atleast not to an undiscerning eye. Jimmy thought he was much better at reading Thomas now- his tics and his giveaways.

When Thomas was overworked he still maintained his stiff posture and there was never a hair out of it’s slick backed place but he smoked approximately twice as much and there was a slightly harder edge to his sarcasm than usual. Jimmy imagined few others downstairs noticed this because Thomas’s manner was already so acerbic in general that it was hard to differentiate between his good moods and his foul ones. But Jimmy could always tell now and he took some pride in it. Thomas couldn’t fool him. And he nearly always beat Thomas in cards because of it.

Jimmy moved his queen’s pawn two spaces- his typical opening move (not because it reflected any greater strategy that he regularly employed but because it was simple and uncreative).

Thomas thought momentarily and nudged his bishop’s pawn forward two spaces into C5.

Jimmy frowned and moved his knight on his queen’s side into F3.

Thomas smirked, taking a quick puff off his cigarette. “What’s this called, then? The Jimmangian defense?” he quipped, bringing up Jimmy’s ‘personal island’ again. The first time they’d talked about it was after a game of chess as well…

“Jimmangians are all terrible at chess.”

“I can see that.”

Thomas moved his king’s pawn forward one space. Jimmy never understood that- why move a pawn one space forward when you had the option of moving it two? But Jimmy had never beaten Thomas at chess yet so he had no right to criticize his technique. All the same he moved his own king’s pawn two spaces, not one, in response.

Thomas placed his knight at F6.

Jimmy scratched his chin, frowning at the board and finally moved his other knight out as well giving his side of the board a pretty symmetry. Jimmy’s techniques when it came to playing games were highly impulse and intuition based. It lent itself well to blackjack and poker but chess was a game of logic and strategy which Jimmy had little patience for. _Perfect for scheming Thomas,_ Jimmy thought, not bitterly, but with affection.

Jimmy often felt great affection for Thomas to the point that it worried him at times. He didn’t become attatched to people quickly and even when he did it was a rare occurrence. He supposed after over a year working with someone, developing an attatchment now wouldn’t be by normal standards seen as “quickly” but it felt fast to Jimmy. He didn’t like to feel too close to anyone. Intimacy, especially with another man, and especially with a man like Thomas, scared him. But he could sense that his feelings were snowballing out of his control with every day they spent together. He was afraid for what it would mean for the two of them, what it would mean for Jimmy himself as a person.

“You’re trying too hard to defend yourself.” Thomas said.

Jimmy’s eyes shot up, wide in shock. He’d always known he had a rather expressive face but to think Thomas would know what he was thinking with such accuracy shocked him. The other man hadn’t even taken his eyes off the board when he’d said it and Jimmy felt color rising to his cheeks.

Thomas’s eyes flicked up to Jimmy’s.

“You’re making a safeguard around yourself but you’re only boxing yourself in.”

Jimmy’s mouth felt dry. He had no idea what to say. Not when Thomas had cut to the crux of his most personal thoughts so bluntly and so unexplainably.

“You’re never going to be in a position to take my king if all your own pieces are blocking your way.”

Jimmy’s cheeks went even redder than they had been before if possible. _The game. Of course he’s talking about the game._

It was his move again. He moved his piece and then retracted his arm and put his hand back in his lap.

He watched Thomas contemplating his next move. He was twirling the pawn Jimmy had taken a few moves ago between his slender fingers, the head of it brushing slightly against his lips and his pale eyes kept flicking almost imperceptibly across the board.  

“But… if I don’t defend my pieces then you’ll take them… a-and I’ll lose.” Jimmy said slowly.

“Well, you’re never going to win by running away.” Thomas said simply.

There it was again. It felt like there was an ocean in his chest and at times like when Thomas said something funny or clever or smiled a particular way, the waves in this ocean crested and crashed down with great force, leaving him breathless as if he’d been punched.

Thomas was brave. He was the bravest person Jimmy had ever met. He was someone who was absolutely himself and felt no shame in it. He was not a gambler like Jimmy but he saw what was important and took risks when he thought there was a chance of success. And when he didn’t succeed he moved on.

Jimmy had never thought of his life as something like a game but at Thomas’s words he felt like a whole new perspective had been opened up to him. Risks were necessary. No, risks were what made life interesting and fun.  

“Well, it seems your defense isn’t doing you much good anyway. Check.” Thomas said with a sigh, moving his bishop.

Jimmy stood up suddenly, reached across the table, grabbed Thomas by the lapels and smashed their lips together.

Jimmy had very little experience with kisses and even less when it came to instigating one. He didn’t open his mouth and after only a moment pulled away, opening his eyes again.

 _That’s it, Jimmy Kent,_ he thought, _there goes the last vestige of your heterosexuality_.

Thomas’s eyes were open comically wide.

“You…” he started to say but trailing off into silence. They stood for a moment staring at eachother. Neither quite sure what had just happened. Then Thomas blinked, cleared his throat slightly, and said evenly “You’re just trying to get out of me checkmating you.”

Jimmy’s mouth dropped open and Thomas tried to keep a straight face but his lips kept turning up at the corners as he tried to contain his laughter. And then Jimmy was laughing and then placing his hands on the back of Thomas’s neck and pressing kisses to his jawline.

“Thomas, I love you. I love you.” he kept saying it again and again as a mantra against the other man’s skin which smelled of aftershave and cigarettes.

He tried to lean forward and the chessboard rattled. Jimmy pushed it out of the way and crawled on top of the table and over to the other side with his legs hanging over the edge.

“Carson wouldn’t approve of you sitting on the table.” Thomas laughed, standing between Jimmy’s knees and putting his hands behind Jimmy’s waist.

“Then sod him.” Jimmy said, resting his forehead against Thomas’s chest and working open the buttons of his vest. He heard his breath catch in his throat.

Jimmy wrapped his legs around Thomas’s waist, pulling their hips together as he pulled the front of Thomas’s shirt open and ran his hands down his torso.

He ran his fingertip lightly across the line of hair that led from Thomas’s chest down to his trousers… then hesitantly repeated the action with the tip of his tongue making Thomas’s body shudder in pleasure.

“Jimmy…” Thomas practically whimpered but he swallowed, shutting his eyes for a second before placing his palm on Jimmy’s shoulder and pushing him gently back. “You don’t have to go so fast. I don’t mind. I’m just happy-“

“I want all of it.” Jimmy said firmly, looking up at him in the eyes. He reached his hands up to grasp Thomas’s face and pulling him down so their foreheads were pressed against eachother. “I want all of you. Let me. Give me all of you tonight.”

Jimmy felt out of breath not from exertion but as if there was a heaviness weighing on his chest, his lungs, his abdomen, when he felt Thomas this close.

“I want everything. Don’t make me beg.” he whispered.

Thomas swallowed. “Well I can’t promise not to make you beg.” he finally said, smirking slightly and Jimmy kissed the smirk right off his lips, pulling him down on top of him onto the table.

Thomas was heavy atop him- sturdy and strong. Unlike how any woman would feel. For a moment it made him shiver- it felt foreign and wrong- the feeling of a man’s weight on top of his body. _It’s not just a man, though- it’s **Thomas** ,_ he thought and pulled away from the kiss to look at his face and remind himself.

“What?” Thomas asked, brows knitting together in concern. “Do you want to stop?”

Jimmy shook his head fervently but he did feel a knot of anxiety in his stomach.

“No. But… could I get a drink first?” he asked. Thomas paused and then nodded, standing up (with some difficulty Jimmy noted).

“I’m sure Mrs.Patmore has some brandy for cooking.” he said.

“You should also get… ah…” Jimmy fumbled with the words, feeling his face go red, “Something… lubricating…?”

Jimmy felt slightly less embarassed when Thomas’s face went red all the way to his ears but he nodded and turned around. When he got to the door he stopped and turned again, looking back at Jimmy with an almost pained worry.  
“I’ll be back in just a second- so don’t go anywhere, alright?”

Jimmy smiled warmly back. “I’m not going anywhere.”

But while he waited he was a bundle of nerves.

Jimmy thought that he feared pain slightly more than the average person even if he tried to never let it show. He was the sort of person who loathed going to the dentist and would put it off as long as possible because it hurt (he brushed his teeth with great thoroughness and frequency in hope of never having a cavity). And when he did go he’d sit in the waiting room fidgeting and feeling a deep sense of dread over what he knew logically would just be a few aches and pinpricking unpleasantness but that was all the worse because of the anticipation. This was a similar feeling to waiting for Thomas to come back.

He had no experience with this type of… love making. But he’d heard stories (mostly in the trenches) of great pain.

 _I’ll endure anything if it’s with Thomas_ , Jimmy said to himself with resolve, almost wincing at the sentimentality of the thought. But he had a great fear that no matter how much he may _want_ to, it might simply be too much. That he wouldn’t be able to go through with it and he’d never be able to make love to Thomas the way he so wanted to.

When Thomas came back into the room and handed Jimmy the bottle of brandy he took it eagerly and threw his head back, taking several gulps. Thomas looked a mixture of concerned and impressed.   

“Alright. Let’s do this.” Jimmy said, throwing off his jacket and vest quickly to the side of the table. He turned around to undo his pants and take off his shoes. He could hear Thomas undressing behind him but was a little scared to turn around. He’d seen other men naked before of course and other men had seen him naked as well but the situation was vastly different. He took another small swig of brandy before turning to face Thomas, completely bare.

“Jimmy, you’re beautiful…” Thomas said quietly after a moment.

Jimmy had heard that many times before. From different people and in different contexts. ‘You’re my beautiful boy, Jimmy’ his mother used to say. A girl in school had once told him he was beautiful when she confessed her ‘love’ to him but he’d known it wasn’t really love and he’d turned her down. The soldiers he’d lived with in the trenches were always teasing him about it as well- they called him a pretty boy. It was all in good fun. But it had always left Jimmy with a mixed sense of both vanity and insecurity. He took pride in his appearance but there was something emasculating about being thought of as beautiful. Like on sight he was immediately judged as being less of a man. It was a strange thing to have a chip on your shoulder about.

But when Thomas told him he was beautiful it was in a way that no one else ever had. It was neither superficial nor teasing. For some reason hearing it made Jimmy’s throat feel tight.

He pulled Thomas by the wrist closer to him until their bodies were flush against one another and opened his mouth to a kiss. The pull of Thomas’s lips was languid and gentle. His mouth was so warm. Jimmy’d never liked ‘French kissing’ before- it had always felt somehow dirty to him. But Thomas’s tongue didn’t feel intrusive at all and he felt his own tongue lapping across it.

Jimmy broke the kiss, feeling the press of Thomas’s erection against his stomach.

“I want to do everything tonight, Thomas. I want you to do it to me.” he said quietly like it was a secret.

“We don’t have to. It can be overwhelming…” Thomas pressed a kiss to his temple and then his cheek. He leaned back and looked Jimmy in the eye seriously. “Just hearing you say you love me… and kissing me… I couldn’t love you more than I already do, Jimmy. You don’t have to push yourself for me.”

He picked up Jimmy’s hand and kissed his knuckles one by one.

“You’ve already made me the happiest person alive.” he said.

Jimmy stroked the back of Thomas’s neck. “I want to do it, Thomas. Not just for you. For me.”

“It’s not always comfortable at first.”

Jimmy swallowed. “I know. But I trust you.” There had been a time where he hadn’t.

Admittedly, it had been a slow process. But Thomas had earned it. Over and over again he’d proved that he was more than worthy of Jimmy’s trust, his friendship, and his love.

He put his hand against Thomas’s cheek. “I trust you more than anyone else in the whole world. And I know you’ll be gentle with me.”

Thomas nodded.

“Alright…” he pulled the second bottle he’d brought from the kitchen out.

“Uh- olive oil?”

“I can get petroleum jelly from my room.”

“No- this is- this is fine. I mean- is this fine? Will it work?”

“I’ll go get the jelly.” Thomas started but Jimmy grabbed his arm.

 _Life is a gamble. You have to take risks. The risks are what makes it fun_. Jimmy’s new mantra.

“Let’s give this a try.” he said, finding himself grinning.

“Are you sure?” Thomas looked doubtful but neither of them were in any state to go running up multiple sets of stairs and it would mean having to get re-dressed.

“I’m quite sure. And you don’t have to make that face- I’m probably not half as delicate as you think me.” he bit his lip, “I just don’t know how to go about it exactly. So you’ll have to take the lead.”

Thomas opened the bottle and poured a liberal amount of olive oil over his right hand.

There it was again. The shiver of fear.

“Can I… turn around?” Jimmy stammered.

“Well… I’d like to look at your face.” Thomas said slowly.

Jimmy shifted on his feet. “I… I don’t think I can. It’s too embarassing. Just… can’t you stand behind me? Atleast for… when we’re starting…” Jimmy felt out of breath and couldn’t look Thomas in the eye but the other man nodded. He felt relief almost immediately and turned with his back to Thomas, and placed his palms flat against the table.

He stared down at the wood and tried not to feel anxious. Thomas’s left hand came to rest against his hip- he could feel the leather cool against his bare skin and it sent arousal pinpricking through his nerve endings.

Thomas poured more oil into the palm of his other hand and slowly rubbed it in the cleft of Jimmy’s arse.

“Ah.” he breathed shakily. Thomas’s thumb was rubbing a slow circle against the spot and the oil was warming against his skin pleasantly. He could feel it dripping down his thighs.

“Alright. Just tell me if I need to go slower.” Thomas said in a hushed voice by Jimmy’s ear.

He felt the tip of a slicked finger pressing ever so gently into him. He was moving at a glacial pace.

“You can go faster than that.” Jimmy said with a breathless laugh.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I promise I’ll tell you if it gets too much.”

Thomas’s finger pushed deeper inside him, breaking the tight ring of muscles. Jimmy held his breath. It felt _strange_ but not exactly _painful_ …. and when Thomas began to very slowly pull the finger in and out, it nearly felt _good_.

“You should spread your legs a bit.” Thomas’s knee nudged against the space between Jimmy’s. “And… maybe bend over a little.”

His face felt hot but he complied. He couldn’t recall a time he’d felt more self conscious.

“I’m going to put another in.” Thomas said and Jimmy closed his eyes, bracing himself. Thomas went slowly again and this time Jimmy was appreciative of his glacial pace as he began easing a second digit inside him. He paused before it was halfway through.

“You need to relax.”

“Easier said than done.”

He felt Thomas’s lips grazing over the back of his neck and then his tongue running along the bumps of his spine. He closed his eyes, taking long breaths through his nose and gradually releasing the tension from his muscles. Thomas’s finger slid with greater ease.

There was a twinge of discomfort but Thomas was being as gentle with him as he’d known he would be. It felt strangely pleasurable. Thomas’s fingers were long and slender but he could feel them entirely inside him before the under butler drew them out again slowly only to push them back. He found his hips rocking back slightly into Thomas’s grip on them when he began to scissor them inside of him, stretching the tight muscle there carefully.

“Are you alright for one more?”

Jimmy nodded. Thomas drew his fingers out and poured more oil from the bottle onto his right hand. Some dripped onto the floor. A third warm and wet finger entered him and this time Jimmy did feel pain. He bit down on his lower lip, fingers curling against the wood of the dining table.

“Ach-“ he bit out, wincing. “Don’t stop, though…”

“S’alright.” Thomas’s whisper was directly by his ear. He could feel his breath hot against his skin. Then he felt Thomas’s left hand move from it’s place on his hip to reach around and slowly wrap around Jimmy’s cock. Thomas teased the tip of the third finger inside him as he used his other hand to stroke Jimmy’s length in a measured rhythm.

Jimmy closed his eyes again, focusing on the pleasure only, exhaling as Thomas buried the three fingers to the hilt inside of him. He hissed but it turned into a whimper as the pain mingled with the gratification of the depth.

“That’s… that’s good.” he choked out, feeling overwhelmed by sensation.

Thomas kissed his neck as he worked Jimmy open further, moving and crooking the three inside him.

“Thomas…”

“Yes?”

He sounded out of breath.

“I want you now…”

When he felt the fingers withdraw he felt a strange emptiness like nothing he’d ever felt before. He turned around to look at Thomas. His cock was hard and jutting up, a bead of pre-cum already sliding from the tip.

Jimmy on impulse took the bottle of olive oil and poured some into his hand before reaching and taking Thomas in his hand, smearing it across his length. The other man’s breath hitched audibly as Jimmy ran his palm across him several times until there was an even coating of oil on him.

“Can I look at you now…?” Thomas asked and Jimmy nodded.

“Just tell me what to do.”

The older man swallowed. “Uh- lie down on your back. On the table.”

Jimmy did so though it wasn’t exactly comfortable with the rigid wood against his spine. Well worth it for the satisfaction of knowing they’d done it in the middle of the servant’s hall, though. He scooched forward until his hips were over the table. Thomas stood between his knees then stepped forward until Jimmy could feel his erection pressed against his slicked opening.  

“It might still hurt. Even after all that. Just tell me and I’ll stop.” Thomas said soothingly.

“It’s alright. Just- go slow.” Jimmy said, swallowing.

Thomas spread Jimmy’s legs with his hands. There was a strange contrast between the skin of Thomas’s right palm which was surprisingly soft to the rough texture of the glove on his left.

Jimmy held his breath tightly when Thomas pressed against him and slowly pushed his hips forward. He closed his eyes and tried to go limp as much as possible but his body protested at the intrusion, clamping up.

“Breathe.” Thomas told him softly.

He exhaled slowly but bit down on his lip, his whole body tensing up anew when the first inch went inside him.

“Ah! Thomas!” he hissed, his fingers digging into the wood of the table.

“It’s alright. Shhh. S’alright.” Thomas murmured, and took Jimmy’s hand in his, entwining their fingers together.

Jimmy squeezed down on his hand hard and nodded.

“Keep going.” he said.

Jimmy took his own cock in his other hand, tugging it intermittently almost more of a gesture of self comfort than of a means to get off. The feeling distracted him from the hurt.

Thomas slowly moved his hips, with Jimmy holding his hand in an iron grip all the while, until he was fully inside him.

“Are you alright?” Thomas asked, his voice strained. Jimmy, keeping his lips pursed, nodded quickly.

It was a throbbing ache of being filled so completely- even stretched to discomfort. But when Thomas began to slowly and rhythmically pull in and out in shallow thrusts, Jimmy gasped.

“ ** _Oh_** …”

Thomas’s fingernails dug sligthly against his thighs as he held onto him for support. His face screwed up in concentration.

“Mmmn…” Jimmy felt like his skin had electric current running through it. Every sensation amplified by the shots of pleasure running through him each time Thomas buried himself into him. He began tightening his grip on his own cock, bringing his palm across it quickly and roughly in contrast to Thomas’s slow thrusts. “You can… a little faster…” Jimmy managed to whimper.

The hand holding Jimmy’s squeezed as he pulled out and began to push back immediately, quicker than before.

Jimmy moaned loudly, his back arching up off the table then as Thomas took a new rhythm.

“God, that’s…”

“I know.” Thomas bit out from between gritted teeth, a sheen of sweat on his face. His head fell back slightly, his mouth dropping open.

“Jimmy, oh… you feel so good. I…” he moaned. Jimmy felt a shiver ripple through his body at the sound.

Jimmy had never felt so blissfully out of control. Would never have thought that being out of control could ever be a good thing. His hips were moving without him wililng them to and he couldn’t bite back the moans that escaped his lips everytime Thomas’s hips came flush against his own. Each time Thomas hit him at a certain depth, a prickling almost painfully intense feeling of pleasure was sent straight to his own cock, making drips of pre-cum leak between his fingers.

At first every thrust had been mingled with pain but now the intrusion felt more like a completion- making his body feel whole as if they were puzzle pieces meant to be fit together as such.

“Thomas, I’m…” he squeezed his cock at the base, willing to draw it out as much as he could.

Thomas nodded, unable to form words as he adjusted his grip on Jimmy’s thigh and leaned forward to move even deeper than before for a few final thrusts.

Jimmy cried out- God, swears, Thomas’s name… his fingers twisting against Thomas’s with their hands held together as he came onto his stomach in the same moment he felt Thomas’s release inside him.

His head fell back against the table, the edges of his vision blurred and his whole body buzzing. Thomas pulled out of him and sat heavily in the chair next to the table, panting.

“I… I should’ve let you do that to me a year ago.” Jimmy spoke breathlessly. He heard Thomas laugh.

Thomas was the first to stand up and fetch his cigarettes and matches out of the pocket of his jacket lying on the floor. He lit one and began smoking it as Jimmy languished on the tabletop. Thomas picked the chessboard off the floor and set it next to Jimmy. Jimmy felt his lips turning up at the corners as he watched Thomas stark naked bending down to pick up chess pieces off the floor that had rolled under the table.

“You’ve got a nice arse.” Jimmy said matter of factly, grinning.

Thomas shot up into standing position and swung his head around to look at Jimmy. He was completely red in the face and the cigarette looked in danger of falling out from between his lips.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you that for a while now.” Jimmy added, stretching his arms above his head. Thomas came and sat down on the table next to him and began setting up the chess pieces on the board once more.

“Well I think you already know what I think of your arse.” he muttered, his lips quirking up.

“Well it’s all covered in oil now... And other things, too.”

Thomas nearly coughed on smoke and Jimmy snickered. He felt drunk- not just off the brandy but off the high of his orgasm, of being naked in the middle of the servant’s hall, of _being in love_.

He sat up, runnnig a hand through his hair. It felt like a fluffy mess atop his head he could only imagine it looked like a bird’s nest.  

Jimmy took the white knight off the board and rolled it in his palm contemplatively.

“You’re not thinking of finishing our game from before, are you?” Thomas chuckled.

“God, no. You were about to beat me.” Jimmy said “I was just thinking…”

He pursed his lips, leaning his head on his side to look at Thomas.

“We should do more of these late night ‘chess games’. I think I could really improve under your careful guidance, Mr.Barrow.”

Thomas smirked around his cigarette.

 

**Author's Note:**

> ok I wouldn't expect anyone to pick up on this but the reason I was so specific with their chess moves was because Thomas was playing the Dragon version of the Sicilian defense. I thought this was fitting because "Dragon" and Eragon and eheheh but also because the Sicilian Defense and it's variations are some of my favorite ways to play black and it's a very aggressive strategy so maybe Thomas would like it as well.


End file.
